Become a Fan

December 21, 2008

Woo-hoo! My sons and I went to see the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium today, in the midst of a snowstorm and had a great time. My wife likes to go to church fairs and our chance to go to the game resulted from her winning a raffle at our church. Her prize: four tickets to the local phenomenon, the New England Patriots. A week ago, the weather forecast looked fine. But it was not to be. Beginning Friday, our area got slammed with a snowstorm that dumped over a foot of snow on the ground. The good news? The followup storm on Sunday was supposed to be only half as intense, with 3-6 inches predicted before turning into a wintry mix.

Up until now, we'd always worked around the Patriots' game day, but today we would need to dive into it. I consulted a couple of folks on parking and was given a lead on a spot in a private driveway. Alas, when we got there, there was no sign of anyone managing parking, so we crossed over Route 1 and pulled into the first lot we saw. I asked how much? $50. Whoa! That would suck up much of the cash in my wallet. But, we didn't know the territory well, so we paid it. The location wasn't bad, just a couple of hundred yards away from the regular stadium entrances for parking.

We headed over to the park and got pelted by snow all of the way over. About twenty minutes later, we'd passed the new shopping extravaganza, Patriot Place and entered the outskirts of the stadium. At the security edge, they patted all of us down and told us to throw our bottled water away. Not a great start. The Patriots like to offer this image of being customer friendly, but that was the last contact we had with the events staff, other than at the concession stand. We approached the stadium and had to guess where to go. Our seats were located in section 301. We took a guess and walked up the first of several concrete ramps. Fortunately, it turned out we were on the correct side, but this was the first stadium or other venue I've been to where nobody helped you at all. I can tell you that the staffs at Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium would never let that happen.

We were already pretty darn cold, but walked up about 6 ramps in order to get to the landing below the entrance to our seats. By now, it was noon, so we decided to spend the last of our money and get lunch. The prices were better than I expected. My oldest son and I both opted for cold weather fare, a bratwurst on a bun and hot chocolate to drink. My youngest and his buddy were less ambitious and elected to get popcorn and sodas. We decided to eat on the landing. The bratwurst tasted pretty good by this point and the hot chocolate helped to warm us up.

After eating for a bit, we walked up toward our seats. And up, and up, until we reached Row 26, the last row. Turns out that this row also has the seats right against the concrete wall of the stadium, which protected us from the wind to a degree. The snow still fell with a vengeance, but we'd found our spot for the day. Looking out, we tried to get our bearings. Far below, we could see the field. The players had finished their warmups, leaving the field empty except for a coat of snow and marks that looked like radioactive traces on a spectrograph.

To our left, we had a fine view of a large high definition screen, a mere hundred and fifty yards away. Looking across, we noted a lot of empty seats. About ten minutes before gametime, five bright green, reptilian snowplows lined up along the left sideline and proceeded to plow the snow off of the field, revealing the pseudo-green of the turf, along with other ornaments such as yardlines and the Patriots' emblem.

Next, several local servicemen took the field and the crowd gave them a strong round of applause. The martial atmosphere continued, as a miltary choral group sang the national anthem. Next, a lot of rap music started pounding out of speakers attached to an overhang about 50 fifty feet in front of us. The loud music would be a constant during the game, whenever the teams weren't actually executing plays. After the ceremonial opening toss, the game began.

The Cardinals, visiting from Phoenix, were given a rude welcome by the locals and shut down after three downs. The Patriots got the ball and quickly marched up the field and got a touchdown. Pandemonium broke loose. Fans took the loose snow and threw snow in all directions. The 1812 overture blasted from speakers and at strategic points, we heard blasts that sounded like cannons.

We were cold, but the celebration got us revved up.

Very soon, the Patriots got the ball back after forcing a fumble and quickly scored again. This time, I got a better look at the specifics of the celebration. At either end of the stadium, men dressed up as Minutemen fired shots from muskets as instructed by their leader, who issued commands to fire by waving a sword. Behind them, the original Old Glory with its circular pattern of stars fluttered in the snow. Once again, snow flew in all directions. My sons informed me that the next musical selection was from AC/DC, as one more shot was fired when the band yelled "Thunderstruck". What a spectacle!

The game went on like that. The Patriots seized total control and had a third touchdown on the board before the end of the first quarter. Next to us, several older fans amused themselves by downing lots of beer and throwing snowballs into the more expensive seats below. Later on, my youngest son and his friend noticed that several of these guys got ejected from the stadium. By halftime, the Patriots led by about 37-0 and the rout was on.

The four of us had been enjoying the game, but all of us were soaked and cold. We walked down to the next level to wait out the halftime and escaped the snow, but experienced a wind tunnel effect.

As we stepped out to check the weather, we noticed that the snow had turned into a wet sleet.

We went back up to our seats at the beginning of the third quarter, but by now were mainly rooting for the teams to run off plays and the clock as quickly as possible. The Patriots maintained their dominance during the second half, though they did let up at one point and allow the Card's second string quarterback to throw a touchdown.

The youngest guys really wanted to go home and kept asking me when we would go. I finally agreed we would leave by around the five minute mark in the fourth quarter. After the Cards got their score, we watched the kickoff and started the slow trudge back to the car. In the background, the game continued and finished right around the time we had walked down all six levels of the exit ramp.

We made it back to our car without any incidents and headed off for our reward, a visit to Dunkin Donuts back in our hometown. We all agreed it had been worth doing, but we were a tired bunch at the end of the day. My youngest said" "It would have been awesome on a nice day earlier in the Fall." True, but this kind of day reminded me of the Patriots at their best, the kings of the cold weather game. This was the first pro football game I'd attended in many years and the best part was sharing it with my sons. We left with an experience that none of us will forget.